The Crimes of the Black Cat (1972)

Nice effects though.

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

After his ex-lover is murdered, the first in a series of slayings, blind pianist Peter Oliver (Anthony Steffen) tries to piece together the clues to find out who is responsible.Killers in gialli often use a distinctive weapon: an open razor, an ice-pick, a saw, a toothbrush. OK, so I made that last one up, but it's no more silly than the weapon of choice in The Crimes of the Black Cat: a black cat with its claws dipped in curare. When the moggy gets a whiff of a liquid cat repellent, poured onto a yellow shawl, it lashes out at the wearer, the poison on its claws causing instant heart failure.Other than this ridiculous modus operandi, it's business as usual for Sergio Pastore's 1972 giallo, with a convoluted plot (that shamelessly borrows elements from its contemporaries), red herrings aplenty, a murderer in black gloves and hat, and a protagonist who, despite being as blind as a bat, proves far more adept at solving a mystery than the police.Although the film is pretty standard fare, gialli fans should still find much to enjoy, with random female nudity and, of course, some graphic violence: although the moggy murders don't allow for much gore (other than a couple of scratches), Pastore more than make up for this in the shocking finale with one of the most brutal killings that the genre has to offer, a bloody razor attack while the victim is taking a shower that includes one shot that rivals the nipple slicing in Fulci's The New York Ripper for sheer nastiness.I have to admit that the reveal of the killer's identity and motive left me a tad confused, but it's not the first time I've been nonplussed by a giallo and I'm sure it won't be the last. 6.5 out of 10, rounded up to 7 for the sadistic shower death scene, the crazy killer cat and that hilarious freeze frame at the end.

A blind pianist overhears a suspicious conversation in a bar. Shortly afterwards his girlfriend is mysteriously murdered. This leads to a series of serial killings that have some connection to a fashion house.The above synopsis is one that you could come up with if you were to toss a dozen giallo scripts in the air and see what random parts fall onto your head. In fact, this film borrows elements from several popular gialli from the time. Throw in adultery, blackmail, an enigmatic drug addict, lesbians, fashion models and dark secrets from the past and you have the makings of a typical effort. However, this movie does have some tricks up its sleeve to differentiate itself from all others. Chief amongst them being what is perhaps the most insane method of murder ever devised. I won't spoil it for first time viewers but it is truly deranged. In addition to this there is also a mind-bogglingly vicous shower murder that comes out of the blue and genuinely shocks. Further strangeness comes with the fact that the blind protagonist appears to be working on a score for Lucio Fulci's A Lizard in a Woman's Skin. We see clips from this film on a couple of occasions, which is rather bizarre.Everything is wrapped up at the end with an explanation that I found completely baffling. But, that's hardly a surprise in these flicks to be fair. At the end of the day, it couldn't be said that this is exactly a prime example of the genre. But it still remains entertainingly batty and does have some visual flair and some good set-pieces. It's unfortunate that the current legitimate DVD release appears to be a non-anamorphic copy of a VHS tape though. A better transfer would improve this one.

The first half of this giallo is fairly undistinguished, especially since it blatantly copies Mario Bava (the fashion-house setting being lifted, yet again, from BLOOD AND BLACK LACE [1964]) and Dario Argento (borrowing its blind hero-turned-sleuth from THE CAT O'NINE TAILS [1971]). However, the film is stylish enough (particularly the zoom-happy murder sequences) and the plot convoluted enough (taking in a plethora of shady characters invariably involved in adultery, drug-taking, blackmail and revenge) to overcome its basic lack of originality; the circus-world back-story, then, should perhaps excuse its uniquely far-fetched murder method...though the seven yellow-silk shawls referred to in the original Italian title are equally insignificant! The film's pulsating score by Manuel De Sica (son of neo-realist master film-maker and versatile actor Vittorio De Sica) is serviceable but unremarkable, as is the cast led by Anthony Steffen, Sylva Koscina (in what at first appears to be merely an extended cameo) and Giacomo Rossi-Stuart. Its use of nudity is very discreet (though it doesn't appear that any cutting was done, I haven't been able to establish the film's correct running time; the print I watched was around 94 mins. in PAL format, but some sources list versions running as long as 108 mins.!) and the gore only truly surfaces at the very end (with a particularly nasty shower murder, shamelessly ripping off Hitchcock's PSYCHO [1960] - but remaining, for my money, one of the genre's most memorable set-pieces). After the mystery has supposedly been solved (and the revelation of the killer's identity having thus proved quite lame and lazy, in my opinion), the film manages to pull the rug from under our feet - so much so that I had to watch the ending twice! - by providing one final twist. By the way, the decision to conclude the film in mid-sequence on a freeze-frame is another Argento influence, namely FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET (1971)! All in all, a giallo more interesting in its borrowings than for any individual achievements - but one that remains eminently watchable just the same.

One thing you can say about Italian gialli: they never resort to killing someone with a simple shooting or stabbing--the villains always use some ridiculously elaborate Rube Goldberg method for doing their victims in. And this giallo features what might be the most ridiculous of them all. I don't want to give too much away, but I will say that the English title "Crimes of the Black Cat" can be taken completely literally. (Obviously, the people who thought up this movie were not cat owners--have you ever tried to get a cat to do ANYTHING?). Aside from the especially absurd murders this is a typical giallo. It is set in the European fashion world, it's highly stylized, the plot makes little sense, and the motivation of the villain turns out to be even more ludicrous than the method of murder. The protagonist is the blind male lover of the first murder victim. (How come blind people never complain that they are always being stereotyped as good-looking and resourceful individuals who always get to solve the crime and sleep with many attractive members of the opposite sex along the way?). The only name star is Sylva Koscina, but she is barely in the movie. The best actor though is the cat (perhaps the self-same feline thespian who played "Satan" in "Gently, Before She Dies"). After he exits the film, it quickly spirals downward with a truly tasteless shower murder and one of those abrupt freeze-frame endings that were so big in the 70's (maybe they ran out of film a lot back then). If you like gialli at all though, you'll probably like this one. It's very typical for its kind.